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Dole-Shalala Commission Wants Bush to Act Quickly
(WaPo) – A presidential commission examining the care given to wounded U.S. service members yesterday recommended “fundamental changes” aimed at simplifying the military’s convoluted health-care bureaucracy and overhauling the veterans disability system for the first time in more than half a century.
The commission, led by former senator Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) and former Health and Human Services secretary Donna E. Shalala, met with President Bush at the White House yesterday morning to brief him on their findings and to press him for quick action.
"The ball's in their court now," Robert J. Dole,
with panel co-chairman Donna E. Shalala,
said after meeting with President Bush.
The 29-page report is titled “Serve, Support, Simplify [doc].” Its six overall recommendations are broken down into 35 specific “action steps,” only six of which would require congressional legislation, Shalala said. Most of the others could be directed by the White House, the Pentagon and the VA, she added.
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The proposals include establishing an interactive benefits Web site called “My eBenefits,” modeled after MySpace, which would provide customized information for service members and veterans about their health care and benefits. The panel called for increased funding to support families of the wounded.
The proposal to overhaul the disability system would end the current “confusing” structure in which the military services and VA issue parallel and often conflicting disability ratings, commissioners said. They also recommended basing the VA’s payments to veterans in part on their quality of life, not just on the work-related effects of their physical and mental injuries. “This is a very important change, because in the past it was just based on your disability,” Dole said.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
